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Springettsbury supervisors begin multi‑session overhaul of zoning and land‑development rules
Summary
At a work session, the Springettsbury Township Board of Supervisors reviewed proposed zoning map changes, a new town center district around the Galleria Mall, a continuing care district, and administrative updates including EV charging, short‑term rental rules and adjusted multifamily density limits.
Springettsbury Township supervisors opened the first of up to three work sessions to review comprehensive updates to the township's zoning and subdivision ordinances, focusing on map changes, district restructuring and administrative modernizations.
Marian, the consultant leading the review, told the board the project follows the township's recently adopted comprehensive plan and is intended to finish in two to three evenings of work sessions before a 45day review process required under the Municipalities Planning Code. She said staff proposes rezoning township‑owned parcels to open space, consolidating split residential/open‑space lots into single residential designations, and replacing a narrowly defined 'neighborhood commercial' district with mixed‑use zoning where those parcels lie.
The package would create a discrete town center district covering the Galleria Mall area to permit multifamily housing and community uses that are not allowed under existing zoning, while relieving small parcels from heavy master‑planning requirements. "We would exempt smaller parcels smaller than two acres from that master planning process," Marian said, adding that reuse of existing buildings would often be allowed by right while larger projects would still require master plans and conditional use review.
The draft also inserts a Continuing Care Community district into the ordinance text so the township would have standards for senior mixed‑use projects if an applicant seeks rezoning; staff said they used examples that allowed a 25‑acre minimum where appropriate but did not apply the district to any site now. On housing density, the draft replaces the existing density‑factor approach with a simpler maximum of 15 units per acre in most districts and a higher allowance of up to 20 units per acre in the proposed town center district.
Board members and staff flagged implementation details for follow‑up: how definitions and charts will be reorganized in the final codified text, whether EV charging requirements should be added for new multifamily projects (staff noted chargers are not mandated under current language), and the sequencing of public hearings. No votes or formal actions were taken at the session; staff will revise the draft and return with refined language on map changes, overlay clarifications, and sign ordinance revisions at a future meeting.
The board scheduled further work sessions to consider outstanding topics including a new sign code and remaining policy choices before sending a review draft to the statutorily required public review period.
